The Spire

Julianna Mariani ‘24 and Nathan Howard ‘25

Editors-in-Chief

On Friday, February 9th, after returning from Winter Break, The Spire had the privilege of speaking with President Rougeau for our monthly interview. Our first question for the President concerned the alerts that the Holy Cross community received on January 10th. While many students were still at home enjoying their break, Holy Cross received a bomb threat. Immediate action was taken to evacuate specific buildings on campus and move to the Luth Athletic Center. Although campus was quieter than usual, these alerts were obviously jarring to both those on and off of the Hill. The community was sent an email titled “Our Response to Yesterday’s Incident” on January 11th. While this message alleviated some of our fears, we asked President Rougeau to comment on the community’s response to the threat and on the threat itself. 

The President responded by stating “It was an email that targeted an individual faculty member so one of my first concerns was making sure that the faculty member was cared for and safe and we made sure we understood what needed to be done to protect faculty members as well as the campus. So we did a quick assessment with public safety. And there was a sense early on that the threat was relatively low. As you all probably know, there have been a lot of instances like this around the country, generally under the umbrella of swatting, but given the nature of that threat and given the level of disruption it could cause, we made the decision to evacuate many buildings and send people to Luth. After that point, the Worcester Fire Department, Worcester Police Department, as well as public safety came together to sweep the campus and make sure that there were no suspicious devices or packages. We had some additional foot patrol on campus as well.” 

After explaining the details of the incident, President Rougeau went on to highlight the lessons learned. “I think what we took from this is: 1. We are entering into a period around the country, particularly because it’s an election year, where we have to be on a higher level of alert because these things are happening more frequently and we’re doing our best to make sure that we have protocols in place to deal with them and 2. We must use this incident to learn how we will respond in the future and to ensure that if we see anything that we can do better, we will make those improvements. We are constantly thinking about how to respond to incidents of this type. We are very focused on the safety of all members of our community but students will also have to understand that we live in a world of disruptions and we all have to work together to be alert, ask questions, report things that seem very unusual and to stay on top of alerts and protocols that we have to keep everyone safe.”

We then asked President Rougeau if he could speak about the successes of Aspire, his strategic plan and a bold vision for Holy Cross’ future, seeing as it just celebrated its one year anniversary. President Rougeau began by stating that “This past fall we started our work to advance some of the key pillars, such as the academic powerhouse, inclusive excellence, and the Worcester pillars. Provost Visconsi has been rolling out a number of initiatives around academic excellence, Vice Provost Tomicka Wagstaff and Heather Hayes have also been involved. We’ve also entered into year two of our Celebration of 50 Years of Co-Education at Holy Cross as part of this as well. We’ve launched a strategic planning process to create an academic strategic plan, so the faculty have been involved in surveys and planning workshops around those initiatives. We’re making sure we get more input before we launch specific programming around academic excellence.”

President Rougeau added that “We’ve also been involved in upgrading some classroom spaces for this spring. These upgrades will continue throughout the summer. We have a few initiatives under student wellbeing and the student experience that we’re launching. We’re looking at some residential initiatives as well as some changes to some different programs like Fall Gateways. We’ve also reimagined the Summer Gateways orientation program to emphasize more inclusivity, so all students from all backgrounds have access to the program and that they can do that together. We’re partnering with the Constructive Dialogue Institute to build student skills engaging in dialogue across disciplines, which is very important in these times. A lot of things are happening and I feel really excited about these early initiatives and the energy around the strategic plan. Things are moving ahead very well.”

Seeing as it is admissions season for students applying to colleges, we discussed some of the strategies that were implemented in last year’s admissions process that led to a record number of applicants for the class of 2027 and an increased interest in a Holy Cross education. We asked the President about successful strategies from last cycle that were implemented again and if there were any new strategies that the College enacted this year, in regards to the admissions process. President Rougeau responded by saying that “We were really excited and pleased with how things went last year and we’re seeing similar energy and numbers and – probably increased numbers – for this cycle. A lot of it is coming from our expanded recruitment efforts. We’re reaching out to students in cities and states that haven’t traditionally sent a lot of applicants to Holy Cross. We’re seeing a big increase in new schools sending applicants to Holy Cross for the first time and I think that is a product of our expanded geographic reach as well as some expanded efforts abroad.” 

President Rougeau added that “We have partnered with some organizations that are also sending us more applications – organizations like QuestBridge, and that has allowed us to get applications from more Pell-eligible, first generation, and low income students who are really top notch academically but not as familiar with an opportunity to come to a place like Holy Cross – so this is allowing us to reach more of those students. Last year, we matched with 11 students from QuestBridge who came to Holy Cross. This year, we have 46. So, we’re seeing really great increases there. We also have new programs like fee waivers for students from gateway cities in Massachusetts – so these are cities that have a relatively large portion of their residents who are lower income and first generation students – places like Brockton, Chelsea, Haverhill, New Bedford, and Worcester. So that’s also helping us to expand our applicant pool and make sure that we’re reaching students of all kinds of backgrounds.” President Rougeau concluded by saying that “We’re seeing a real increase in excitement, academic quality is super high, and I hope students are excited about their new classmates and new fellow members of the Holy Cross community from a wide variety of backgrounds.”

February is a month that is often overlooked on campus due to the wintry conditions and our desire to stay indoors. However, there seems to be a slew of events occurring this month on the Hill. All over Hogan, posters and advertisements can be seen for things like Welcome Back Events, Black History Month, Love Data Week, A Literary Social and Valentine Workshop, and much more. February is also a great month for the Holy Cross community to head to the Luth for sporting events such as hockey and basketball. We asked President Rougeau to elaborate on some of these events, as well as what students can look forward to in the coming weeks. President Rougeau responded by saying “Well you mentioned a few things that I think are worth repeating. There are some great athletic events going on. We had that really exciting double header for basketball, and there’s a lot going on with hockey. One thing I would highlight is that there are some really great cultural events that are coming to the Prior Performing Arts Center – specifically a series called Prior Presents, so folks should take a look at some of the upcoming concerts and performances that will be happening. Right now, we have a student theater performance, Oklahoma!. Reginald Dwayne Betts will be doing a creative writing presentation near the end of February. In March, we have music with Riannon Giddens.” President Rougeau added that “So as we move from February into the spring, there will be a lot of things happening at the Prior. There will also be numerous lectures as well as other student events around the campus. So, February is a good time for indoor activities and students should take advantage of the fact that we have some great things going on and I think the energy is there, maybe just not as visible.”

On a similar note, we asked President Rougeau to tell us a bit about his favorite winter activities and how he handles getting through a season that is often associated with the cold and dark. He responded positively by saying, “I too like to use this time to take advantage of going to sporting events and cultural events so I’m going to try to get to both this winter, but in addition to that, I still try to get outside. I think, even in winter, it’s still important to get outside and thankfully this winter hasn’t been too snowy so if you like to hike like I do, the trails are still open and easy to access. I also like to catch up on a lot of reading. I pale in my ability to get through books when compared to my wife, who is amazing, she goes through books at a rate that I cannot match. But, as she drops books that she’s finished, I can read them too and we can put a big fire in the fireplace and fill in the dark, cold night just reading.”

Featured Image Courtesy of Holy Cross Magazine